


until we can't (let's go)

by warfare



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Handcuffed Together, One Shot, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-08-30 04:21:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16757581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warfare/pseuds/warfare
Summary: For a second what’s just happened is unthinkable. He can’t believe it. It would just betoostupid. But then he steels himself and looks down the chain connecting him to the slim wrist of IDOLiSH7’s manager.(Gaku and Tsumugi get handcuffed together, for the IDOLiSH7 Flash Bang.)





	until we can't (let's go)

**Author's Note:**

> I got lucky enough to be partnered with [Minami (@sakaimii)](https://twitter.com/sakaimii) for the IDOLiSH7 flashbang! Honestly I couldn't have asked for a better pull, the OG GakuTsumu.
> 
> It's been years since I've written anything under 4k words so this was hahaha a challenge.

Lately Gaku’s been thinking that maybe Kaoru has a point about cutting back on collaboration with IDOLiSH7. Not because he dislikes the members -- he’s been rooting for them since the beginning, and, if asked, he’d admit that he really likes them -- but because getting involved in their affairs always seems to mean getting wrapped up in complete nonsense.

Like today: he’s scheduled to participate in a variety show with MEZZO”, and the staff had let him know the plan was for him and Yotsuba Tamaki to be handcuffed together for a joke segment. He doesn’t mind -- he can’t even count the number of times he and Ryuu or Tenn have been handcuffed together -- but for whatever reason Yotsuba kicks up a fuss. The kid insists it isn’t safe, and that he’s _seen_ this kind of show, and that someone is going to lose the key and Gaku will have to go to _school_ with him or something.

Gaku’s only half-listening; he hadn’t signed up for babysitting when he became an idol, and he trusts that Osaka Sougo has it under control. He’s a bit preoccupied, anyway; Tsumugi is accompanying MEZZO” today, although she seems distracted. It’s not like she hadn’t said hello, only that she’s barely looked up from her laptop during all the fuss. How seriously she takes her work is one of the things Gaku likes most about her -- but still, it’s been hard not to take it a _little_ personally. After all, Gaku prides himself on being a deeply distracting man.

But then Osaka says, “Look, Tamaki, it’s perfectly safe,” and clicks the handcuffs around Gaku’s wrist. It takes Gaku by surprise, but he supposes that a demonstration of how safe the handcuffs are is probably the fastest way to calm Yotsuba down, so he acquiesces without really looking up. But then Osaka continues, “If it was dangerous would I do _this_?”

Gaku hears a second _click_ and Tsumugi saying, "Ah, Sougo-san, do you need me for somethi--" at the exact same time.

For a second what’s just happened is unthinkable. He can’t believe it. It would just be _too_ stupid. But then he steels himself and looks down the chain connecting him to the slim wrist of IDOLiSH7’s manager.

It’s clear she doesn’t realize what’s happened right away; Tsumugi blinks slowly, like she’s shaking off the fog of work. And then she’s horrified, standing so quickly that her chair clatters noisily to the floor behind her. The surprising force behind her movement pulls Gaku forward; he narrowly avoids crashing into her, managing to catch himself on the table instead. He’s certain he would have looked cooler if he’d just let himself catch her, but he also knows it would have started rumors. The thought of that is enough to banish the small, awful part of him that wants to imagine what it would be like to slip an arm around Tsumugi's waist and steady her.

Everything devolves pretty quickly at that point, because just as Osaka begins saying, "You know I would never do anything to endanger Manager, so of course it’s all right," a staff member realizes what’s happened and runs over to inform them that those handcuffs are _real_ , not the props they had been planning on using for the show, and that the person who has the key is nowhere to be found.

Yotsuba is inconsolable -- both because he feels, perhaps correctly, that he’s very narrowly escaped danger, but also because now _Tsumugi_ is stuck with Gaku, a complaint that Gaku really feels like he’s over-exaggerating. Osaka is also obviously upset; he keeps whispering, "Don’t worry, I’ll take responsibility, I can fix this,” until Tsumugi tells him that it’s all right and also that he’s scaring Tamaki so to please take a walk until he’s calmed down.

Ultimately it’s not a huge problem for the television show, which is a relief; it isn’t the joke the writers had planned on, but they see the humor in what’s happened. They agree that explaining the story and then having Yaotome Gaku sit throughout the whole episode handcuffed to a person just outside of the shot is pretty funny in its own right, so thankfully filming is completed as scheduled.

Afterward Tsumugi calls her father, unsure what to do. Gaku knows it shouldn’t mean anything to him, but he can’t help the unfamiliar way his stomach flips when the low hum of President Takanashi’s voice changes when his daughter says, “No, of course not, it was Sougo-san’s mistake, Gaku-san just got caught up in it.”

Gaku and Tsumugi obviously can’t leave the building like this, so MEZZO” will head home in in a taxi and the two of them will wait in MEZZO”’s changing room until someone can come free them. Yotsuba complains the whole time they’re walking down to their taxi, and even Osaka has the unmitigated gall to shoot Gaku an unsure look as he bows his head and says, “We’ll leave our manager to you then.”

The way Yotsuba has to be dragged away heavily implies that he’d rather not leave his manager to Gaku.

The tension that settles over the room when they’re alone is unbearable; usually it’s easy to be with Tsumugi, arguably _too_ easy. Gaku's a pro, and he loves TRIGGER more than anything, but somehow when he’s with Tsumugi he just feels like a normal guy, and that worries him. But something about how close they are now, the way they’re connected -- it makes the air between them feel heavy and strange.

“I’m really sorry about this,” Tsumugi apologizes again after a moment of silence. Somehow the apology eases whatever tension Gaku had been feeling, and he shakes his head, laughing.

“It’s not your fault. We’re just lucky I didn’t have any plans after this. Besides,” he adds, grinning winningly in her direction, “it’s been a while since we were able to see each other -- I’ll take what I can get.”

“I feel the same!” Tsumugi interjects brightly, making eye contact for what feels like the first time in ages. “I was thinking earlier -- if this had to happen, I’m glad it was with you, Gaku-san. You’re easy to be with. Or rather -- I suppose I feel at ease with you?”

Gaku isn’t sure what comes over him. Maybe it’s how close they are and the way he imagines he can feel the heat of her skin through the metal of the cuffs. Maybe it’s the memory of her father’s voice over the phone, or the trusting look behind her eyes, and how she wasn’t distracted by him earlier and how frustrating he finds it that he misses her when they can’t meet. All he knows is that something wells up in his chest, compels him to close the distance between them and take her hand in his.

“I’m glad you’re comfortable around me,” he murmurs, watching closely as she stills, “but honestly, I think you could stand to be a little more aware of me.”

The silence between them is awful, and for a second Gaku is certain he’s ruined everything. But then he looks more closely, and he sees a bloom of pink spreading up Tsumugi’s neck and across her ears. And then she gently, almost imperceptibly, moves to twine her fingers with his. She looks up at him like she has something to say, and Gaku’s breath catches in his throat.

 

 

 

“Oh, sorry,” Banri says in a tone that indicates that he absolutely isn’t sorry at all, “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” The look he shoots Gaku says that he really better not have been interrupting anything.

“Oh, Banri-san,” Tsumugi says. The smile she shoots Banri is warm and comfortable; Gaku wonders if she’ll ever look at him that way, like his being there with her is the most natural thing in the world. “Did you find someone with a key?”

“Oh -- no,” he admits, and then pulls a hairpin out of his ponytail, “The President wanted me to be fast, and it’s not like it’s hard to get out of handcuffs.” He works at the restraint around Tsumugi’s wrist for a bit, and then it snaps open, and Gaku wonders where on earth TakaPro had _found_ this person. Banri takes a suspicious pause before he starts working on the handcuff around Gaku’s wrist.

But as Tsumugi rubs at her wrist, she casts him a look that’s different from any way she’s ever looked at him before, and Gaku thinks: maybe it’s better this way. He waits until there’s some distance between them before he sends her a rabichat that just says,

_Hey, sorry about earlier, but it seemed like you were about to say something. Would you mind telling me what it was?_

And with that same tight feeling in his chest, he waits.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, thank you again to [Minami (@sakaimii)](https://twitter.com/sakaimii) for partnering with me, and to the [IDOLiSH7 flashbang](https://twitter.com/idolish7bang) for coordinating! This was my first time participating in this kind of collaborative thing, and I had a great time. It's been really fun to see all the amazing fic and art coming out of the exchange -- what a talented fandom tbh. Please go check out Minami's twitter for this and other amazing beautiful GakuTsumu art!!


End file.
